Editing Ryan Aeronautical (section)

==History==
=== Early history ===
In 1922, T.C. Ryan founded a flying service in San Diego that would lead to several aviation ventures bearing the Ryan name, including [[Ryan Airline Company]] founded in 1925.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Flying Magazine|date=July 1954|title=Genealogy of American Aircraft|author=Gill Rob Wilson}}</ref>

T.C. Ryan, whose previous companies were best known for building [[Charles Lindbergh]]'s transatlantic ''[[Spirit of St. Louis]]'', actually had no part in building the famous aircraft.<ref><u>Spirit and Creator: The Mysterious Man Behind Lindbergh's Flight to Paris</u> by Nova Hall</ref><ref>The Untold Story of the Spirit of St. Louis by Ev Cassagneres</ref><ref name="charleslindbergh">{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal01-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal01-1939-post1970.jpg, (468 × 600 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}}</ref><ref name="charleslindbergh2">{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal02-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal02-1939-post1970.jpg, (462 × 596 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}}</ref><ref name="charleslindbergh3">{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal03-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal03-1939-post1970.jpg, (466 × 600 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}}</ref><ref name="charleslindbergh4">{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal04-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal04-1939-post1970.jpg, (462 × 600 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}}</ref>  Ryan had been owner or partner in several previous companies, one of which also bore the name Ryan Aeronautical. The ''[[Spirit of St. Louis]]'' was not built by the final Ryan Aeronautical entity.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://tucson.com/news/retrotucson/photos-ryan-field-west-of-tucson/collection_a3d5dfb2-8ad9-11e8-98df-4ffcee093bb4.html| title = Photos: Ryan Field west of Tucson|date= July 19, 2018| work = Arizona Daily Star}}</ref>

The new company's first aircraft was the [[Ryan ST|S-T Sport Trainer]],<ref name="ev">{{cite book |last1=Cassagneres |first1=Ev |title=The New Ryan: Development and History of the Ryan ST and SC |date=1995 |publisher=Flying Books International |location=Eagan |isbn=9780911139204 |pages=Introduction,1–19, 52}}</ref> a low-wing tandem-seat monoplane with a {{cvt|95|hp}} [[Menasco B-4 Pirate]] [[straight-4]] engine. Five were built before production switched to the [[Ryan ST|Ryan ST-A Aerobatic]] with a more powerful {{cvt|125|hp}}  [[Menasco C-4]] in 1935. This aircraft now had enough power for aerobatic display, and it won the 1937 International Aerobatic Championships. A further improved ST-A Special was built in 1936, with a supercharged {{cvt|150|hp}} [[Menasco C-4S]].

In 1937 and 1938, a second civilian aircraft model was introduced, the [[Ryan S-C|S-C Sport Coupe]], or SC-W with a {{cvt|145|hp}} [[Warner Super Scarab]] radial engine. The SC-W was a larger three-seater aircraft with a sliding canopy and side-by-side front seating. The prototype SC-M was originally powered by a [[Menasco C-4]] inline engine, however testing revealed that more power was needed. Thirteen examples of the SC-W were built, although the last one was assembled from surplus parts decades after the initial production run was finished.

=== USAAC trainers ===
[[File:Ryan Aeronautical Company logo 1960.png|thumb|Ryan Aeronautical Company logo (1960–1969)]]
Interest from the [[United States Army Air Corps]] followed. The Menasco engines proved unreliable, and instead Kinner [[radial engine]]s were fitted. Aircraft were produced as the PT-16 (15 built); PT-20 (30 built); PT-21 (100 USAAF, 100 USN); and finally as the definitive [[PT-22 Recruit]] (1,048 built) ordered in 1941 as pilot training began its rapid expansion.

Ryan also pioneered [[STOL]] techniques in its [[YO-51 Dragonfly]] liaison and observation craft, but only three were built.<ref name="ec">{{cite book |last1=Cassagneres |first1=Ev |title=The Spirit of Ryan |date=1982 |publisher=TAB BOOKS Inc. |location=Blue Ridge Summit |pages=208–210}}</ref>

=== Postwar ===
[[File:Teledyne-Ryan AQM-34N Firebee, 1962 - Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum - McMinnville, Oregon - DSC00908.jpg|thumb|right|Ryan AQM-34N Firebee, 1962 - [[Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum]] - [[McMinnville, Oregon]]]]
In the immediate postwar years, Ryan bought the rights to the [[North American/Ryan Navion|Navion]] [[light aircraft]] from [[North American Aviation]], selling it to both military and civilian customers.<ref name=ec/>{{rp|222–225}}

Ryan became involved in the missile and unmanned aircraft fields, developing the [[Ryan Firebee]] unmanned target drone, the [[Ryan Firebird]] (the first American air-to-air missile) among others, as well as a number of experimental and research aircraft.

Ryan acquired a 50% stake in [[Continental Motors Corporation]], the aircraft-engine builder, in 1965.<ref>Leyes, Richard A., and William A. Fleming, The History of North American Small Gas Turbine Aircraft Engines, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1999: p.143 {{ISBN|1-56347-332-1}}</ref>

In the 1950s, Ryan was a pioneer in jet vertical flight with the [[X-13 Vertijet]], a tail-sitting jet with a delta wing which was not used in production designs. In the early 1960s, Ryan built the [[XV-5 Vertifan]] for the U.S. Army, which used wing- and nose-mounted lift vanes for [[V/STOL]] vertical flight. Other Ryan [[V/STOL]] designs included the [[VZ-3 Vertiplane]].<ref name=ec/>{{rp|226–235}}

Ryan developed the highly accurate radar system used on the [[Apollo Lunar Module]].<ref name=ec/>{{rp|237–238}}

In 1968, the company was acquired by [[Teledyne]] for $128&nbsp;million and a year later became a wholly owned subsidiary of that company as Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical Company.<ref name=ec/>{{rp|237}}

[[Northrop Grumman]] purchased Teledyne Ryan in 1999, with the products continuing to form the core of that firm's unmanned aerial vehicle efforts.